Star Trader Read online

  David Falkyn-Star Trader

  Table of Contents

  High Profits And High Adventure

  A Historical Reflection

  Territory

  Plus Ça Change Plus C'est La Même Chose

  The Trouble Twisters

  Day of Burning

  The Master Key

  Satan's World

  A Little Knowledge

  Lodestar

  Afterword

  Chronology Of Techic Civilization

  DAVID FALKAYN: STAR TRADER

  Poul Anderson

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this

  book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  "High Profits and High Adventure" copyright © 2008 by Hank Davis. "A Chronology of Technic Civilization" by Sandra Miesel copyright © 2008 by Sandra Miesel.

  A Baen Book

  Baen Publishing Enterprises

  P.O. Box 1403

  Riverdale, NY 10471

  www.baen.com

  ISBN 10: 1-4165-5520-X

  ISBN 13: 978-1-4165-5520-9

  Cover art by David Seeley

  First Baen printing, January 2009

  Distributed by Simon & Schuster

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001.

  David Falkayn : star trader / by Poul Anderson.

  p. cm. -- (Technic civilization saga ;v bk. 2)

  Sequel to: The Van Rijn method, 2008.

  ISBN 978-1-4165-5520-9 (hc) -- ISBN 978-1-4391-3294-4

  (trade pb)

  1. Life on other planets--Fiction. 2. Human-alien

  encounters--Fiction. 3. Interplanetary voyages--Fiction.

  I. Davis, Hank. II. Miesel, Sandra, 1941- III. Title.

  PS3551.N378D38 2009

  813'.54--dc22

  2008044410

  Printed in the United States of America

  BAEN BOOKS

  BY POUL ANDERSON

  The Van Rijn Method

  David Falkayn: Star Trader

  To Outlive Eternity and Other Stories

  Time Patrol

  Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! (with Gordon R. Dickson)

  Hokas Pokas (with Gordon R. Dickson)

  Acknowledgements

  "A Historical Reflection" (excerpt from "Margin of Profit") first appeared in this form in Trader to the Stars, Doubleday, 1966. Copyright 1956 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.

  "Territory," first published in Analog, June 1963, copyright 1963 by Condé Nast Publications Incorporated.

  "Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est la Même Chose," first published in The Trouble Twisters, Doubleday, 1966. Copyright 1966 by Poul Anderson.

  "The Trouble Twisters," first published in Analog, July and August 1965, copyright 1965 by Condé Nast Publications Incorporated.

  Introduction to "Day of Burning," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978. Copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson.

  "Day of Burning," first published as "Supernova" in Analog, January 1967, copyright 1967 by Condé Nast Publications Incorporated.

  "The Master Key," first published in Analog, July, 1964, copyright 1964 by Condé Nast Publications Incorporated.

  Satan's World, first published in Analog, May, June, July and August 1968, copyright 1968 by Condé Nast Publications Incorporated.

  Introduction to "A Little Knowledge," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978. Copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson.

  "A Little Knowledge," first published in Analog, August 1971, copyright 1971 by Condé Nast Publications Incorporated.

  Introduction to "Lodestar," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam, 1978. Copyright 1978 by Poul Anderson.

  "Lodestar," first published in Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology, ed. Harry Harrison, Random House, 1973. Copyright 1973 by Random House, Inc.

  "Afterword," first published in Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology, ed. Harry Harrison, Random House, 1973. Copyright 1973 by Random House, Inc.

  "Chronology of Technic Civilization" by Sandra Miesel, copyright 2008 by Sandra Miesel.

  High Profits And High Adventure

  And now the second volume in the Technic Civilization saga, with young David Falkayn taking center stage. Not that Nicholas van Rijn is through having a few more adventures of his own (including—literally—one armchair adventure), adventures which he would just as soon have delegated to someone else, such as in the first story in this book, but Falkayn is now not the only one front and center, but his trader team is ready for action.

  Team leader is David Falkayn, a member of the aristocracy on the planet Hermes, where he had the misfortune (or, perhaps, not misfortune at all) of being the younger son of a baronial house, a spare part in case something happens to the older son who's the rightful heir, and consequently obliged to strike out on a career of his own. The reader will have met him in the first volume, The van Rijn Method (and if the reader hasn't read that book, the reader should hasten to the local bricks-and-mortar bookstore, or else get online and acquire it; it won't be on sale forever, even if it certainly should be). As detailed therein, he had a trial-by-fire (not to mention trial-by-alien-arrows), acquitted himself well, and was given assignments of increasing importance and authority. And now he has his own ship, and a most unusual crew.

  Besides Falkayn, there's Chee Lan, a tempestuous felinesque being, considerably smaller than a human but with enough attitude for a whole battalion of monkey-boys (or girls), covered with silky-white fur, and a crack shot with a blaster. Better not beat her at poker—or do anything else to get her mad. But she keeps a cool head in a crisis: "glacially self-possessed," as Poul Anderson puts it.

  Then there's Adzel, as imperturbable as Chee Lan is high-strung, and I suspect that his imperturbability has less to do with his being a Buddhist than with his reptilian species' having evolved on a planet where they're the biggest life form—not quite elephant sized. They are dragonlike, but also centaurlike, with four legs and an additional two arms. He abhors violence, but has no problem with self-defense—or defense of his comrades.

  Muddlehead completes the team. Their ship, Muddlin' Through, has an intelligent computer that tends to show initiative at the most unexpected times, sometimes exasperatingly so, but at other times with highly welcome ingenuity, outsmarting the bad guys. Now if only it didn't sound so smug, particularly when it wins at poker. . . .

  Their first adventure, between these covers as "The Trouble Twisters," finds Poul Anderson having some more fun with space opera stereotypes, much as he did with The Man Who Counts (included in The van Rijn Method). This time, it's the intrepid spacefarer who has to rescue a woman (human, that is) from pursuing alien bad guys. The whole thing is straight out of the stories that writers for Planet Stories (and Anderson was a frequent contributor to that marvelous pulp magazine) wrote with a straight face. This time the author has his tongue at least in the vicinity of his cheek, and even Falkayn comments, "No. . . . Such things don't happen." The author gives a solid reason for finding a human damsel in distress on an alien planet, and there's just as much adventure as Planet could have boasted, plus a bit of humor. But that's enough from me—go read the story.

  In fact, I should shut up now and say, "Go read the book." But I'll make a few more comments, beginning with "Day of Burning," which is a pivotal moment in the Technic Civilization universe. A planet is menaced by a nearby supernova, and the Polesotechnic League, with Falkayn's trader team first on the scene, is going to help the planet's race as much as possible to survive. But no good deed goes unpunished, and not only do things get dangerously complicated for a member of the team, but the planet happens to be Merseia. And centuries later, Dominic Flandry and the Terran Empire would have ample reason to regret that good deed.

  Then, there's "The Master Key," which has van Rijn back on Earth, in the lap of comfort, while he listens to his agents describe their adventures on a troublesome planet. He listens to their story, takes in all the facts, then solves a mystery without getting out of his chair, making me wonder if perhaps centuries ago he might have had a similarly rotund ancestor whose name was Wolfe.

  But, though he'd rather stay back on Earth while paying others to face danger and have adventures, it's not that kind of universe, and in the novel Satan's World, van Rijn and the trader team are together again for the first time, facing a menace not just to van Rijn's beloved profits, but to Earth itself.

  And while they're both in action in the concluding novella in this volume, they're not really together. Dark times are coming, though the real darkness hasn't fallen yet (but it will in the third volume, Rise of the Terran Empire), and it's not always easy to stuff a genie back into the bottle. Poul Anderson's universes, that of the Polesotechnic League and Technic Civilization included, are places with love, joy and heroisms—but they are never cozy. The center may hold for a time, but never holds forever. The darkness is always lurking out there, waiting to descend. James Blish once noted Anderson's strong sense of tragedy: ". . . as a physicist, he knows that the entropy gradient goes inexorably in only one direction, and he wastes no time sniveling about it."

  Neither do Anderson's heroes snivel. It's not a friendly universe, but those heroes and heroines do what they must, bringing forth light for a time and driving back the darkness in their corner of an uncaring cosmos. Even if
they finally are defeated, they still fought the good fight. While Poul Anderson claimed no loftier status than a craftsman whose object was to entertain the audience—a role he fulfilled admirably—his SF often had a larger dimension; a dimension which is very much on display in the Technic Civilization saga.

  The van Rijn Method made use of the introductory material that Poul Anderson had written for the stories appearing in the earlier collections Trader to the Stars, The Trouble Twisters, and The Earth Book of Stormgate. This time, the novel had no introduction in any edition that I'm aware of, "The Master Key" was preceded by a quote from Shelley's poem "Hellas," and "Territory" was prefaced by an excerpt from the first van Rijn story, "Margin of Profit." Since "Margin of Profit" (the revised version) was included in The van Rijn Method (and the original, unrevised version was added as an appendix to the online version of the book), I was at first uncertain about including the excerpt, but finally decided that: (1) Poul Anderson had decided to include it back in 1964 and, being much more intelligent than I (and most other people), he must have had a good reason, (2) You don't have to read it, if you've read either or both of the full-length versions, (3) Even so, it won't hurt you to read it again, and (4) It doesn't add anything to the cost of the book. (When all other arguments fail, hit 'em in the wallet.)

  As for three of the introductions, I'll reiterate (for the reader who hasn't read The van Rijn Method) that The Earth Book of Stormgate had introductions to its stories (and one novel) which were written as if by Hloch, a member of the winged race called Ythrians. And I'll add that, while the Ythrians are not represented as fully in this second volume as they were in the first, they will occupy a whole novel in the third. Stay tuned.

  Finally, the story "Lodestar" has an introduction (by Hloch) and also an afterword by the author, which was originally a foreword when it first appeared in an anthology of all-original stories. The anthology was called Astounding, edited by Harry Harrison, and subtitled John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology. Unfortunately, almost four decades after John W. Campbell's death, it's possible that some readers may not know who he was. This is not the place for a complete treatment of the man who was the pivotal figure in SF in the 1940s, editing Astounding Science Fiction (later and presently, Analog), the leading magazine in the field, raising the standards for sf almost overnight and discovering writers who would become titans of the field, such as Heinlein, Sturgeon, Asimov—and, a few years later, Anderson. While the afterword doesn't add much to our understanding of the Technic Civilization series, it does have a touching anecdote, it indicates that Poul Anderson was considering writing no more Polesotechnic League stories after "Lodestar" (but apparently changed his mind, fortunately), and it emphasizes that the series might have been much shorter, except for Campbell's liking for the Polesotechnic League stories. Thank you, Mr. Campbell.

  And thank you, Mr. Anderson.

  —Hank Davis, 2008

  A Historical Reflection

  It is a truism that the structure of a society is basically determined by its technology. Not in an absolute sense—there may be totally different cultures using identical tools—but the tools settle the possibilities: you can't have interstellar trade without spaceships. A race limited to one planet, possessing a high knowledge of mechanics but with all its basic machines of commerce and war requiring a large capital investment, will inevitably tend toward collectivism under one name or another. Free enterprise needs elbow room.

  Automation made manufacturing cheap, and the cost of energy nose-dived when the proton converter was invented. Gravity control and the hyperdrive opened a galaxy to exploitation. They also provided a safety valve: a citizen who found his government oppressive could usually emigrate elsewhere, which strengthened the libertarian planets; their influence in turn loosened the bonds of the older world.

  Interstellar distances being what they are, and intelligent races all having their own ideas of culture, there was no universal union. Neither was there much war: too destructive, with small chance for either side to escape ruin, and too little to fight about. A race doesn't get to be intelligent without an undue share of built-in ruthlessness, so all was not sweetness and brotherhood—but the balance of power remained fairly stable. And there was a brisk demand for trade goods. Not only did colonies want the luxuries of home, and the home planets want colonial produce, but the old worlds themselves had much to swap.

  Under such conditions, an exuberant capitalism was bound to strike root. It was also bound to find mutual interests, to form alliances, and settle spheres of influence. The powerful companies joined together to squeeze out competition, jack up prices, and generally make the best of a good thing. Governments were limited to a few planetary systems each, at most; they could do little to control their cosmopolitan merchants. One by one, through bribery, coercion, or sheer despair, they gave up the attempt.

  Selfishness is a potent force. Governments, officially dedicated to altruism, remained divided; the Polesotechnic League became a super-government, sprawling from Canopus to Polaris, drawing its membership from a thousand species. It was a horizontal society, cutting across all political and cultural boundaries. It set its own policies, made its own treaties, established its own bases, fought its own minor wars—and, in the course of milking the Milky Way, did more to spread a truly universal civilization and enforce a lasting Pax than all the diplomats in the galaxy.

  But it had its troubles.

  —"Margin of Profit"

  Territory

  Joyce Davisson awoke as if she had been stabbed.

  The whistle came again, strong enough to penetrate mortar and metal and insulation, on into her eardrums. She sat up in the dark with a gasp of recognition. When last she heard that wildcat wail, it was in the Chabanda, and it meant that two bands were hunting each other. But then she had been safely aloft in a flitter, armed men on either side of her and a grave Ancient for guide. What she saw and heard came to her amplified by instruments that scanned the ice desert glittering beneath. Those tiger-striped warriors who slew and died were only figures in a screen. She had felt sorry for them, yet somehow they were not quite real: individuals only, whom she had never met, atoms that perished because their world was perishing. Her concern was with the whole.

  Now the whistle was against her station.

  It couldn't be!

  An explosion went crump. She heard small things rattle on her desk top and felt her bed shaken. Suddenly the glissandos were louder in her head, and a snarl of drumtaps accompanied them, a banging on metal and a crashing as objects were knocked off shelves. The attackers must have blown down the door of the machine section and swarmed through. Only where could they have gotten the gunpowder?

  Where but in Kusulongo the City?

  That meant the Ancients had decided the humans were better killed. The fear of death went through Joyce in a wave. It passed on, leaving bewilderment and pain, as if she were a child struck for no reason. Why had they done this to her, who came for nothing but to help them?

  Feet pounded in the hall just outside the Terrestrialized section of the dome. The mission's native staff had roused and were coming out of their quarters with weapons to hand. She heard savage yells. Then, farther off among the machines, combat broke loose. Swords clattered, tomahawks cracked on bone, the pistol she had given Uulobu spoke with an angry snap. But her gang couldn't hold out long. The attackers had to be Shanga, from the camp in the oasis just under Kusulongo the Mountain. No other clan was near, and the Ancients themselves never fought aggressively. But there were hundreds of male Shanga in the oasis, while the mission had scarcely two dozen trustworthy t'Kelans.